In 1989, at the outset of his administration, President George H. W. Bush appointed Barr to the U.S. Department of Justice as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, an office which functions as the legal advisor to the President and executive branch agencies. Barr was known as a strong defender of Presidential power and wrote advisory opinions justifying the U.S. invasion of Panama and arrest of Manuel Noriega, and a controversial opinion that the F.B.I. could enter onto foreign soil without the consent of the host government to apprehend fugitives wanted for terrorism or drug-trafficking.[3]

In May 1990, Barr was appointed Deputy Attorney General, the official responsible for day-to-day management of the Department. According to media reports, Barr generally got high marks for his professional running of the Department.[4]

In August 1991, when then-Attorney General Richard Thornburgh resigned to run for the Senate, Barr was named Acting Attorney General.[5] Three days after Barr moved into that position, 121 Cuban inmates, awaiting deportation to Cuba as extremely violent criminals, seized 9 hostages at the Talladega federal prison. He directed the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team to carry out an assault on the prison, which resulted in rescuing all hostages without loss of life.[6] It was reported that President Bush was impressed with Barr's handling of the hostage crisis, and weeks later, President Bush nominated him as Attorney General.[7]

Barr's two-day confirmation hearing was "unusually placid,"and he received a "warm reception" from both Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.[8] Asked whether he thought a constitutional right to privacy included the right to an abortion, Barr responded that he believed the constitution was not originally intended to create a right to abortion; that Roe v. Wade was thus wrongly decided; and that abortion should be a "legitimate issue for state legislators" to deal with.[8] Committee Chairman, Senator Joe Biden, though disagreeing with Barr, responded that it was the "first candid answer" he had heard from a nominee on a question that witnesses would normally evade.[9] Barr was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Chairman Biden hailed Barr as "a throwback to the days when we actually had attorneys general that would talk to you."[9]

The media described Barr as staunchly conservative.[10]The New York Times described the "central theme" of his tenure to be: "his contention that violent crime can be reduced only by expanding Federal and state prisons to jail habitual violent offenders."[10] At the same time, reporters consistently described Barr as affable with a dry, self-deprecating wit.[11]

After leaving the Department of Justice, Barr spent over 14 years in senior corporate positions. At the end of 2008 he retired from Verizon Communications, having served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of GTE Corporation from 1994 until that company merged with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon. During his corporate tenure, Barr led a successful litigation campaign by the local phone industry to achieve deregulation by scuttling a series of FCC rules, personally arguring several key cases in the federal courts of appeals and the Supreme Court.[12] Barr currently serves on several corporate boards.[citation needed]

In his home state of Virginia, Barr was appointed in 1994 by then-Governor George Allen to co-chair a commission to reform the criminal justice system and abolish parole in the state.[13] He served on the Board of Visitors of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg from 1997 to 2005.[14]

^Landler, Mark, "The Lawyer Leading the Charge Against the FCC's Regulations", The New York Times, 1/20/97, page D1
Barrett, Paul, "GTE Lawyer Shapes Strategy for Telecommunications", The Wall Street Journal, December 5, 1996.